Harvester-sickle driving means



P 1942- A. PARADISE ETAL 2,297,317

HARVESTER-S ICKLE I DRIVING MEANS Original Filed July 29, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. 6

\j INVENTORS LOUIS A. PARADISE RA L ANDE I r ORNEYS Sept 1942- 1.. A. PARADISE ETAL 2,297,317

HARVESTER- S ICKLE DRIVING MEANS Original Filed July 29, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HQ. 3 LOUIS A -P&SXIINSEORS 7 A TORNQYS Patented Sept. 29, 1942 UNITED STATES,

PATENT oF lc' HABVESTEB-SICKLE DRIVING MEANS Louis A. Paradise and Ralph L. Anderson, Moline, Ill., assignors to Deere & Company, Moline, 111., a corporation of Illinois Original application July 29, 1940, Serial No.

Divided and this application December 4, 1941, Serial No. 421,566

7 Claims. (QL 56-158) .mechanism for reciprocating the sickle relative to the cutter bar. A more specific object relates to the provision of a power connection for reciprocating the sickle, in which means is incorporated for quickly and easily adjusting the register between the 'sickle knife blades and the ledger plates of the cutter bar.

This application is a division of an application, Serial No. 348,128, filed July 29, 1940, by Anderson, Arnold and Paradise.

These and other objects and advantages of our invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art after a consideration of the following description in which reference is had to the drawings appended hereto, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the forward end of a harvesting machine of the type known as a combine, in which the principles of the present invention are incorporated in the sickle drive mechanism;

Figure 2 is a perspective view, drawn to an enlarged scale, of the lower end of the shaft which transmits power for driving the sickle, together with the connections between the shaft and the knife head;

Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the hearing which supports the lower end of the power transmitting shaft;

Figure 4 is a sectional plan view taken through the axis of the connecting link between the reciprocating arm and the knife head;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the wobble plate device for reciprocating the transmission shaft about its major axis; and

Figure 6 is a vertical sectional view drawn to a still further enlarged scale, and taken through the axis of the driving mechanism.

Referring now to the drawings, the combine comprises a longitudinally extending thresher body Hi, to the forward end of which is connected a forwardly extending platform II, by

numeral ll cooperates with the cutter bar I! and is reciprocable relativethereto for severing crops from the field, after which the crops fall rearwardly upon an endless canvas conveyor 15 5 -having a plurality of transverse slats l6 fixed thereto. The conveyor I5 conveys the harvested material upwardly and rearwardly from the cutter bar and delivers the material into the forward end of the harvester body Ill in a manner well 10 known to those skilled in the art.

The side walls l2 are each extended forwardly beyond the cutter bar to provide dividers ii.

The upper end of the endless conveyor I5 is trained around a drive roller 20 (see Figure 6),. which is Journaled for rotation about the axis of vertical swinging movement of the platform ll relative to the body ID in a manner which forms no part of this invention but which is fully disclosed in the aforementioned patent application.

A V-belt pulley 2i is fixed to the shaft of the roller 20 for driving the latter and receives power through a V-belt 22 which is trained over a second pulley 23, to which power is supplied by any suitable means known to the art. The V-belt 25 pulley 2i is rigidly fixed by bolts 24 to a hub member 25, which is pressed onto the tapered end portion 28 of the shaft of the roller 20.

The harvester sickle I4 is driven from the V- belt pulley 2|, which also drives the platform 30 roller 20. The uniform rotation of the pulley is not deemed necessary to describe this wobble motion device in great detail. Briefly, however,

i the wobble device 30 comprises a ball bearing member 31 including an inner race 32, mounted on a cylindrical surface 33 at the end of the hub 25 but which has an axis of generation disposed at an acute angle to the axis of rotation of the hub. An outer ball race 35 is secured within a ring 36 by means of a pair of annular retaining rings 31 which fit within grooves in the ring 36 on opposite sides of the bearing race 35. The

outer end of the shaft is threaded, as at 33, on which is mounted a securing nut 39, which bears against a wedge-shaped washer 40, which abuts the end of the hub 25 and holds the latter in place on the tapered portion 26 of the shaft.

The ring 36 is provided with a pair of diametrically opposed radially extending trunnions II, which are journaled in bearings 42 which are inserted inapertures 43 in the ends of a' pair of arms 44 on a bifurcated yoke member 45, the

latter having a socket 46 disposed on an axis perpendicular to the axis ofthe trunnions 4| and adapted to receive the rear end of a sickle driving shaft 41, which is clamped within the socket 46 by means of a clamping bolt 48 (see Figure 5). The inner bearing race 32 rotates with the pul-. ley hub 25, while the outer race 35, ring 36, trunnions 4|, and yoke 46 are held by the shaft 41 against rotation about the axis of the pulley 2|.

When the pulley 2| is rotated, the ring 36 and its connected parts are reciprocated with an angular movement about the longitudinal axis of the drive shaft 41 through an angle equal to twice the value of the acute angle between the plane of the bearing 3| and the plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the pulley hub 25.

The forward end of the shaft 41 is journaled in a bearing 50, which is carried on a bearing support 5|. The bearing till is a self-aligning bearing of conventional type having a spherical outer surface which is cradled in the bearing support or pedestal 5| .and is secured thereto by a cap 52 having a cooperative spherical seat, which engages the spherical bearing surface, the cap 52 being fastened to the support 5| by means of a bolt 53 on each side-of the bearing. The bearing pedestal 5| is mounted on the rear side of a bracing'wall 54, which extends outwardly from the side wall 2 of the platform and is disposed substantially perpendicular to the bottom of the platform. The pedestal 5| is supported on three bolts -55, which extend through bolt holes in the pedestal and through transversely extending slots 56 (see Figure 2) .in the bracing wall 54. Thus when the bolts 55 are loose, the pedestal can be shifted laterally on the wall 54 for the purpose of adjusting the register of the sickle with respect to the cutter bar, as will be further explained later. I

In order to insure that the pedestal 5| is firmly locked in adjusted position, a corrugated plate 51 (see Figure 3) is interposed between the pedestal 5| and the wall 54. The plate 51 is rigidly fixed to the wall 54 by welding or by riveting and is provided with laterally extending slots disposed in register with the slots 56 in the wall 54. Similarly, the adjacent surface of the pedestal 5| is provided with corrugations (not shown) which interlock with the corrugations on the plate 51, thus firmly locking the pedestal to the supporting wall 54. The forward end of the shaft 41 is reduced in diameter, as indicated at 66, and has a splined end 6| to which is clamped a downwardly extending arm 62 by means of a clamping bolt 63. Thus, the arm 62 is disposed on the forward side of the wall 54 opposite the bearing 50, the shaft 66' extending through a transversely extending slot 64..

The lower end of the arm 62 is connected to the extended shank 65 of the sickle M by means of a double ball and socket joint device, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10 (see Figure 4), comprising a pair of clamping members 1|, 12, each member having a substantially hemi-spherical ball socket 13, 14 at each end thereof, and the two members 1|, 12 are clamped together by means of a bolt 15 disposed substantially at the center of the members. The lower end of the arm 62 is provided with a ball 16 which is received between the ball sockets 13 at one end of the interconnecting link '10, and another ball 11 is clamped between the ball socket 14 at the opposite end of the link 16. The ball 11 is rigidly supported, as by welding, on a vertically extending web 18, which is fixed to the sickle shank 65 by suitable means such as by welding.

'A pair of lock nuts 16 are threaded on the end of The outer end of the sickle shank 65 is slidably supported within a tubular bearing housing 85, the outer end of the housing being closed by meansof a plug 86, which is removable for cleanout purposes but is normally grease-tight to retain lubricating grease within the housing, the grease being applied under pressure through a suitable fitting 81. The tubular bearing housing 65 is rigidly supported on the outer end of an extension 66 of one of the transverse platform frame members as more particularly described in the aforementioned co-pending application. The frame member extension 96 also supports the outer end of the wall 54. A shoe or runner BI is provided for protecting the sickle drive mechanism from obstructions such as stones, dirt and the like, and extends forwardly from the frame extension 30 and converges toward the point of the-divider 1. A lifting bracket 92 is fixed to the outer end of the extension frame member 90, and the platform is raised and lowered about its pivot axis by means of suitable lifting mechanism including a lever 93 connected by a link 84 to the bracket 92.

During operation, the belt 22 drives the pulley 2|, which rotates the hub 25 and inner ball race 32. The outer ball race 35 is held against rotation, but is oscillated from side to side, carrying with it the yoke 45 and the shaft 41, which is thereby oscillated about its longitudinal axis. The depending arm 62 at the forward end of the shaft 41 is thus oscillated toward and away from the platform wall l2 and byvirtue of its connection with the sickle through the link member 16, the sickle is reciprocated relative to the cutter bar. The sickle can be adjusted relative to the cutter bar by loosening the bolts 55 and shifting the bearing pedestal 5| laterally until proper registry of the sickle knives with respect to the ledger plates of the cutter bar is obtained, after which the bolts 55 can be retightened in adjusted position. By tightening or loosening the nuts 13 on the bolt 15, the clamping pressure of the members 1|, 12 upon the balls 16, 11 can be adjusted.

We'claim:

1. In a harvesting machine, the combination of a cutter bar, a reciprocative sickle cooperative therewith, a reciprocative member connected to said sickle for actuating the latter, means for supporting said member on said machine in driving relation to said sickle, said supporting means being shiftable to adjust said sickle relative to said cutter bar, and means for fixing said supporting means on said machine in adjusted position.

2. In a harvesting machine, the combination of a cutter bar, a reciprocative sickle cooperative therewith, an arm having connection with said sickle for actuating the latter, means pivotally mounting said arm on said machine, said pivot means being shiftable generally parallel to the direction of movement of said sickle for adjusting the latter relative to said cutter bar, means for fixing said mounting means on said machine in adjusted position, and means for reciprocating said arm.

3. In a harvesting machine, the combination of a transversely extending cutter bar, a sickle slidable alongsaid cutter bar, and means for reciprocating said sickle comprising an arm disposed generally perpendicular to and having connection with said sickle, means for pivotally mounting said arm on said machine, said mounting means being shiftable transversely of the machine to adjust the register of the sickle relative to said cutter bar, means for fixing said mounting means on said machine in adjusted position, a rotative power shaft journaled on said machine behind said cutter bar, a longitudinally disposed power transmitting shaft connected to said arm at its forward end, and means connecting the rear end of said shaft to said power shaft, and adapted to impart a reciprocative movement to said power transmitting shaft by rotation of said power shaft.

4 In a harvesting machine, the combination of a transversely extending cutter bar, a sickle slidable along said cutter bar, and means for reciprocating said sickle comprising a generally vertically disposed arm, means connecting the lower end of said arm with the sickle, means pivotally supporting said arm on said machine above said sickle for swinging movement about a generally for and aft extending axis, said pivot support being shiftable transversely to adjust the register of saidsickle, means for fixing said pivot support on said machine in adjusted position, and means for reciprocating said arm.

5. In a harvesting machine, the combination of a transversely extending cutter bar, a sickle slidable along said cutter bar, and means for reciprocating said sickle comprising a generally vertically disposed arm, means connecting the lower end of said arm with the sickle, a rearward- 40 ly extending shaft to which the upper part of said arm is fixed, a supporting bearing for said shaft adjacent said arm, a supporting frame member on said machine, means for adjustably fixing said bearing to said member in any of several transversely spaced positions for adjusting the register of said sickle relative to said cutter bar, and means for angularly reciprocating said shaft about its major axis.

6. In a harvesting machine, the combination of a transversely extending cutter bar, a sickle slidable along said cutter bar, and means for reciprocating said sickle comprising a generally vertically disposed arm, means connecting the lower end of said arm with the sickle comprising a ball fixed on said sickle, a ball on the end of said arm, and a link connecting said balls comprising a pair of opposed clamping members. each having a ball socket at each end thereof and a bolt interconnecting said clamping members intermediate the ends thereof, a rearwardly extending shaft to whichthe upper part of said arm is fixed, a supporting bearing for said shaft adjacent said arm, a supporting frame, member on said machine, means for adjustably fixing said bearing to said member in any of several transversely spaced positions for adjusting the register of said sickle relative to said cutter bar, and means for angularly reciprocating said shaft about its major axis.

7. In a harvesting machine, a platform having a cutter bar, a sickle slidably disposed on said cutter bar and having a shank extending beyond the latter at one end thereof, a tubular bearing housing slidably receiving the end of said shank in one end thereof, the opposite end of said housing being closed to retain lubricating material therein, andmechanism for reciprocating said sickle connected to said shank between said housing and said cutter bar.

LOUIS A. PARADISE. RALPH L. ANDERSON. 

